Community Corner

Council Members, Residents Question Rotating Presidents

Len Torres and Scott Mandel take on new posts.


After just six months in office, Fran Adelson is now the former president of the Long Beach City Council, after its members voted at last Thursday’s meeting to elect Len Torres to fill her post and Scott Mandel to become vice president. The changing chairs, though, came with a “no” vote from Councilman Mike Fagen, as well as some challenges about the process from council members and residents alike.

The city last week announced, via its website, that Adelson would stepped down from her position as part of a new six-month rotation of presidents, with her title passing to fellow Democrat Len Torres, who deferred to Adelson after council members elected him president at the induction on Jan. 1.

“We’re not into creating an atmosphere of hierarchy and power,” Adelson said in a prepared statement to explain the changed policy. “Because of the way things were done in the past, that was the perception. That being president of the City Council had so many more powers attached to it.”

In answer to those who have called the change unprecedented, Adelson replied that so was the new Democratic council’s decision to hold Good and Welfare sessions, which allows residents to speak on any government-related issue, at every council meeting, as well as the move to stream the meetings live on the Internet. “So, we’re different,” Adelson concluded.

Council members Fagen and John McLaughlin, though, both challenged the lack of a nomination process for a new president, as was required for prior incoming presidents. Corporation Counsel Corey Klein essentially said that because the names of the new officials appeared in the resolutions a nomination process was unnecessary.  

“So nominations are out now, for the future,” McLaughlin asked. “So I should expect that in six months we’re going to have another nomination for a president?”

While City Manager Jack Schnirman did not comment on the new policy, Fagen questioned city spokesman Gordon Tepper's statement to Patch that the council
decided to rotate the president's position every six months. But Fagen contended that it was never discussed with him, McLaughlin and Torres. “There’s a lot of questionable things going on in town at a time when the city really needs trust from the council and guidance,” Fagen said.

Fagen challenged Adelson’s suggestion that the council presidency is about a concentration of power. “It’s about an example of stability and leadership in town,” said Fagen, who claimed that the new policy was made “behind the scenes.”

Adelson rejected this statement, saying only that she “respectfully disagreed.”

Denis Kelly, a former City Council president, commended Adelson for serving as president during the past six months, a time when she and the council had to decided to lay off city employees. But Kelly criticized the new council, suggesting that the rotation policy was an indication that they are “lost” and “have no plan.”

“I’m not saying that you are necessarily floundering, at least you may not think so in your own minds,” Kelly said. “But perception is reality, and people out there are going to start to say: couldn’t get the legislative deal done with the bonding, my tax rate is back to 16 percent, you’re borrowing more money, you’re switching presidents, you intend to continue to switch presidents. It only sounds like [the rotation] is possibly the three of you [Adelson, Mandel and Torres] for every six months; I don’t know if Councilman Fagen and Councilman McLaughlin are considered in the program. It’s just mayhem.”

Kelly urged the council to reconsider the new policy, and Torres said that they would.

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Resident Eileen Hession also questioned its purpose. “Who’s going to be president in January?,” she asked, echoing McLaughlin. “If there’s no nominations, who is it? Who is it? Do you know? How will you decide if there’s not going to be any nominations?” Hession didn't receive an answer.

Resident Karen Adamo commended Adelson, her friend, for taking on the responsibility of president as a newly elected member, especially when the city faces many problems. “I think … it shows her character,” Adamo said.

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Adamo added that Adelson and Schnirman have taken on the brunt of the city's burdens and a barrage of attacks like no other president or city manager in the past 25 years. “And for her to be attacked or questioned, as to why there should be a change now," she said, "is making a matter personal that doesn’t need to be."


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